I beat him by long chalks. Thoroughly. In allusion to the ancient custom of making merit marks with chalk, before lead pencils were so common.

1

Walk your chalks. Get you gone. Lodgings wanted for the royal retinue used to be taken arbitrarily by the marshal and sergeant-chamberlain, the inhabitants were sent to the right about, and the houses selected were notified by a chalk mark. When Mary de Medicis, in 1638, came to England, Sieur de Labat was employed to mark all sorts of houses commodious for her retinue in Colchester. The same custom is referred to in the Life and Acts of Sir William Wallace, in Edinburgh. The phrase is Walk, youre chalked, corrupted into Walk your chalks.

2

In Scotland, at one time, the landlord gave the tenant notice to quit by chalking the door.

3

The prisoner has cut his stick, and walked his chalk, and is off to London.C. Kingsley.